DWAYNE SMITH hasn’t been completely discarded by the Barbados cricket selectors.
They, however, only plan to consider him for the shorter forms of the game.
The policy now is to expose young players to the regional stage with a view of getting them in West Indies colours.
That was the explanation provided yesterday by chairman of selectors George Linton in response to questions on Smith’s omission from a 13-man squad that features wholesale changes from the team that represented the island in the just-ended Caribbean Twenty20 tournament.
“My main concern is to expose players to the West Indies level.
“It is time that we get some players out there and give them the opportunity to perform and let the selectors see what we have,” Linton told WEEKENDSPORT.
“Winning is not the ultimate goal for me – not when you are picking so many young players and looking to expose them.
“You might win if you can get the team gelling quickly, but my aim is to expose these players, give them every opportunity to be seen by the West Indies selectors and the public.”
The 13-man squad announced on Wednesday for the first match of the four-day competition against Trinidad and Tobago beginning a week from today, includes four teenagers: Kraigg Brathwaite, Jason Holder, Shane Dowrich, and newcomer Roston Chase.
The youth dimension is further enhanced by the presence of two 22-year-olds – Shamarh Brooks and Kyle Hope – in the squad picked by Linton and fellow former Barbados representatives Winston Reid and Mike Inniss.
“There will be people who are for and against some players.
“My ultimate thing is to get these players out there, get them developing and showcasing the young talent.” Linton said.
“There was a period [in the early 1990s] when a few experienced players were taken out of the Barbados side and we brought in a whole crop of youngsters – the era of Philo Wallace, Sherwin Campbell, Courtney Browne and others.
“All these players were exposed and they got into the West Indies team at some point. That is what is needed again.”
With the selectors moving in a different direction, no room was found for Smith despite a commendable showing in the Caribbean Twenty20.
He was Barbados’ leading batsman with 156 runs that included two half-centuries at an average of 39.00 and a strike-rate of 156.00.
“Dwayne is still in our plans. At the present time, Dwayne will be preferred at the one-day level and the T20,” Linton said.
“He will still feature. Although we are playing these youngsters, we have to let them know that performance will count. You can’t just go in and don’t perform. There are other young players waiting in the wings.”
The squad for the four-day competition does not feature ten players who were part of the Caribbean Twenty20.
The World Cup-bound Kemar Roach and Sulieman Benn were unavailable, but apart from Smith, the others who did not find favour were batsmen Jonathan Carter, Rashidi Boucher and Alcindo Holder, wicketkeeper/batsman Carlo Morris and all-rounders Ashley Nurse, Javon Searles, and Carlos Brathwaite.
Linton, however, pointed out that the changes were not made as a direct result of the disappointing performance in the Caribbean Twenty20 in which Barbados lost two of their four matches and failed to advance to the semi-finals.
“We sat down as a panel and thought it best to separate the three versions of the game.
“It’s not easy picking the same players for all competitions. That has happened a lot over the years,” Linton said.
“What we tried to do was not to only look at the players’ performance but how they played in the one-day competition in Jamaica, the T20 and we tried to assess them coming into the four-day tournament.
“We’ve earmarked players who will be around the one-day format.
We also recognize there are players who are more likely to play in the T20 version,” he added.
“For the four-day competition, we thought it best to expose some of the emerging talent.”
